


Themes of Isolation and Relocation

by onemechanicalalligator



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:27:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25189456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onemechanicalalligator/pseuds/onemechanicalalligator
Summary: Troy flips through the channels but ultimately ends back onFull House. He sets the remote down on the couch and stares at his hands in his lap.“Do you ever get lonely, Abed?” he asks eventually. “Like, even when you have friends and stuff?”Troy is sad. Abed helps.
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir
Comments: 11
Kudos: 80





	Themes of Isolation and Relocation

There’s a knock at Abed’s dorm room door, and when he answers it, Troy is standing there. He’s soaked, dripping water everywhere, and Abed is so distracted trying to figure out what movie this is from, it takes him a minute to realize that Troy looks very upset. He might even be crying, but it’s hard to tell since his face is already wet from the rain.

Abed realizes that neither one of them has spoken yet, and it doesn’t really bother him, but Troy looks uncomfortable, so he steps aside and gestures for him to come in. He grabs a towel from the top of his dresser and hands it to Troy, who uses it to wipe his face and pat his hair, and then wraps it around his shoulders like a cape.

“You’re not reenacting a scene from a movie, are you?” Abed says, not really asking a question, just looking for confirmation. 

Troy shakes his head.

“Do you want to borrow some clothes?” 

Abed is asking questions in order of his own priorities. Now that the movie question is answered, clothes are the next most pressing issue. He hates the feeling of wet fabric on his skin. Troy probably does, too.

Troy nods, and Abed digs around in the dresser until he finds a pair of sweatpants that are a little too loose, and he quickly unties the knot he’s made in the drawstring so they’ll be adjustable. He also finds a Greendale t-shirt he got for free that’s several sizes too big for him.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Abed says. “So you can change in here.” He doesn’t expect a response from Troy, so he doesn’t wait for one, just steps into the hall and closes the door behind him.

He knocks before entering when he gets back, just in case, and Troy opens the door. The sweatpants fit him okay, they’re just a little too long, and the shirt, which is huge on Abed, is also huge on Troy. Abed thinks too big is better than too small, though, which would be the case with any of his other shirts, so this is fine.

“Do you want anything to eat or drink?” Abed asks, remembering his manners.

Troy shakes his head.

Abed goes to the couch and sits down. He turns on the TV, and a rerun of _Full House_ is on. He can’t tell which episode it is; they all kind of run together. He’s not really concerned with that, though. He glances up at Troy and catches his eye, and Troy joins him on the couch, curling up with his feet underneath him. His face hasn’t changed since he got here, and Abed is pretty sure the emotion he’s seeing is sadness, or maybe despair.

“Do you want to watch something else?” Abed asks, handing him the remote.

Troy flips through the channels but ultimately ends back on _Full House._ He sets the remote down on the couch and stares at his hands in his lap.

“Do you ever get lonely, Abed?” he asks eventually. “Like, even when you have friends and stuff?”

Troy speaks quietly, so quietly Abed almost doesn’t hear him over the sound of the laugh track, and he grabs the remote and hits the mute button.

“Yes,” Abed says, and pulls his feet up on the couch, wrapping his arms around his knees.

“Me too,” Troy says, and his voice is thin and watery. 

He’s not crying, but Abed picks up a box of tissues from the floor and sets it on the couch between them just in case. Troy takes one and begins to shred it into confetti in his lap. Abed only has a limited supply of tissues, though, and he kind of needs them for allergies, so he takes a fidget cube off the shelf and passes that to Troy, who accepts it wordlessly.

“Are you lonely right now?” Abed asks.

Troy is quiet for a while, and Abed guesses he’s thinking about it, and he understands, because it can be a complicated question.

“No,” Troy finally says, and he sounds surprised.

“Good,” Abed says.

“I was earlier,” Troy says, but he doesn’t elaborate and Abed doesn’t ask.

“It’s part of the reason I watch so much TV,” Abed offers. “Loneliness. It was worse when I lived at home.”

“Were you lonely a lot at home?” Troy asks hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Abed replies. “My dad was always working. So it was just me, most of the time.”

“That sucks.”

Abed doesn’t know how to respond, so he just shrugs.

“It’s lonely living at Pierce’s house,” Troy blurts out. 

“That’s not surprising,” Abed says.

“It’s not?” Troy sounds a little relieved, like maybe he expected Abed to answer differently.

“He’s not your peer,” Abed says. “So it’s not really the same as living with a regular friend. And I bet it would feel weird to invite people over to his house, even though you live there. You’re like a guest, not a roommate.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” Troy says, and bursts into tears. Abed gently takes the fidget cube out of his hand and replaces it with a new tissue.

“It’s not what you expected,” Abed says.

“No,” Troy sniffs.

“It’s kind of my fault,” Abed murmurs. “I should have let you live with me.”

“No, because of the shark,” Troy says, still crying.

“Maybe the dynamic has changed enough that we wouldn’t be jumping the shark,” Abed says. “Especially now, after a crisis.”

“Crisis?”

“Or whatever you want to call this,” Abed says. “With the rain and confessions of loneliness and crying.”

“Sorry,” says Troy.

“No, I’m not judging you,” Abed explains. “I’m just describing the scene. I don’t mind if you cry. Or get soaked, or get sad about things.”

“I know,” Troy says, and sighs. “I think that’s why I came here.”

“Good,” Abed says. “You should always come here.”

“Okay,” says Troy, and smiles weakly.

“I’m moving soon, though,” Abed adds.

“You are? Where?” asks Troy, looking alarmed.

“I’m getting an apartment off campus,” Abed says. “You should live there with me.”

“Are you serious?” Troy’s eyes are wide and he’s stopped crying.

“Yeah. I think the time is finally right for us. And I really do get lonely living by myself. Plus I think you’d be really fun to have as a roommate.”

“Okay,” Troy says, and grins. “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Cool,” Abed says. “Cool cool cool.”

They do their handshake and settle back on the couch, and Abed keeps the TV muted so they can start making plans for their new place.


End file.
